Weekly Crypto Digest June 30 – July 6

The launch of the Tezos Beta net, how Australia is going to be one of the most digital-friendly countries, third “messaging cryptocurrency”, hard fork in the BTG network, and South Korea to legitimize blockchain industry – read the most interesting news in our weekly digest!

Tezos Beta net launched

After more than one year of development and several months of discussions, Tezos beta net has been finally launched. Investors faced no progress being made for quite a time after the finish of Tezos ICO. Several investors even has to fill a lawsuit against the Tezos’ foundation. This caused a several-months delay in Tezos network launch.

After the project management team was changed, things became more clear, and all investors were promised to be rewarded soon. That’s how Tezos ICO became one of the projects with the longest payback – with its ICO finished almost a year ago, there is still no information about a delivery time for the tokens.

On June 30th, the new Tezos team announced the launch of Beta net and it happened on July 2nd. Now the users can start validating blocks after the first seven cycles. Tezos team supposes this period to be passed in next three weeks. Devs team asked the community to take precautionary measures in order to ensure the security of their tokens during operations in Beta net. According to projects’ specification, lost or stolen tokens can’t be restored.

Bitcoin Gold hard fork happened

On July 3rd,Bitcoin Gold has successfully conducted a hard fork at the block height 536200 and migrated to Equihash-BTG, a new Proof-of-Work algorithm. The hard fork has been aimed at ensuring the ASIC-resistance of the network, as well as minimizing the risk of “51% attack” by cutting off rental hashpowers with mining personalization improvements.

Another major improvement of the network is the implementation of LWMA, updated Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm, which makes blockchain more responsive to hashpower swings. Now, the block time and difficulty of the network are going to stabilize faster after shifts. All these improvements are already implemented. Most of the mining pools, wallets and exchanges have updated their backend software, so you only need to update your software to the latest after-fork versions to continue mining Bitcoin Gold.

Viber is to launch its cryptocurrency

It seems that launching their own cryptocurrency becomes a new trend for messaging apps. First, Telegram messenger successfully hosted the ICO and whole world is staying awaited for the TON blockchain projects, then Kakao announced their will to do the same. And now, Viber is going to be the third messaging app with its own cryptocurrency.

The currency, called Rakuten Coin (Rakuten is the parent company and the creator of the Viber app), will be based on the company’s existing loyalty program. The currency will be tradable for dollars and euros, and its launch is planned for early 2019.

It’s not yet clear whether there will be any specific use cases for the currency, or it will be used only for in-app purchases, such as buying premium stickers or additional customization options.

South Korea legitimizes blockchain industry

The South Korean Government is drafting new classification standards for blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. It’s planned to unveil the new crypto-industry classificatory scheme, aimed at “blockchain promotion and regulatory frameworks,” by the end of July 2018.

The upcoming legislative package will cover major spheres of blockchain and cryptocurrency operations, such as decentralized application (DApps), blockchain systems construction, and crypto exchanges and transactions regulation.

Generally, this scheme is going to redefine all current crypto terms as state-regulated financial institutions and legal technological spheres so it will make a great step forward to acceptance of the blockchain industry by one of the biggest economies of the world.

IBM dealt with the Australian government to improve data security

For the next five years, IBM became a key contractor of the Australian government in improving data security of the country through blockchain, distributed ledger, and other new technologies. This deal was signed by the country government and the company last Tuesday, July 3rd.

By the terms of this contract, IBM will provide Australian federal departments with its latest developments in such spheres as blockchain, automation of big data processing and artificial intelligence (AI) in order to improve country’s defense, economy, and commonwealth.

The Australian government is one from the list of the most digital-friendly governments in the world, along with South Korea, Japan, and Malta. For example, a special subdivision of the Australian government called Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) already received $530,000 of the budget on the blockchain researches in 2018-2019.